Bump! :001_smile:

I'm just cutting out all the tiles right now.... Glad to hear things are going well for you. We've been using SWR for months now but my 9yo ds is a struggling learning so I think AAS will be more user and teacher friendly. We use www.spellingcity.com every day as well and I really, really like it. :001_smile: Kim

Thanks so much! I hope everyone passes it on! Warm regards, Kim :001_smile:

Thanks for the traffic! This has been great!! Kim :lol:

Bible Verses 1 year free audio Bible Camera Fun - free Bible Books OT & NT - written by a hs dad and worth the $ Rocket Math Math Drills Grand Tour - space app LEGO photo - SUPER FUN! Instagram - photo Pano - photo Star Wars Academy Scrabble Logos AllRecipes How to Cook Everything Epicurious Kindle HSW - How Stuff Works Stack the States - geography practice iBooks Food Network TED Mobile Jungle Time - time practice The Weather Channel Starbucks Big Oven WHEW!! HTH! Kim

Thanks, Ladies - This is REALLY fun for my boys!! They are loving all the trade ideas! Kim :)

My first year of home educating my son was the more miserable one for us because I thought I had to do "school" and "home." Once I got over that, things went so much better for us. I am now, four years later, a very relaxed home educator. I became relaxed by reading a variety of books that challenged me. I might want to be classical but I don't have the consistency yet. I can't even be Charlotte Mason-style because I want to play too much. I LOVE being an unschooler but feel too guilty despite how well I've seen it work. Read books like John Holt's Teach Your Own. It will offer some perspective. Read THE ELEMENT by Sir Ken Robinson. I think it should be required reading for every parent & every teacher. I can't recommend it enough. I have three boys: 9, almost-8 & 5. My two youngers (esp Mr. 5yo) enjoy worksheets. My 9yr old would rather clean toilets than do worksheets. So, since I do this for them rather than me, I find what works for them. Peace & Grace, Kim

I don't find it intimidating at all because, whenever we've gone to visit other churches, everyone has always been so darn nice and welcoming!! I grew up Baptist & Pentecostal and I am now non-denominational for life. We have attended three different Calvary Chapels and they have each been as welcoming as the others. Even the huge mega-church one that we attended until it just got too big for us. We have visited other churches with friends, even churches that are not similar to ours, and I'd have to say that below all the differences in church beliefs, we are all brothers and sisters of the heart and it has shown in the churches that we've gone to. I find the huge churches more intimidating than the smaller ones because the smaller ones will guarantee that someone will find you and talk to you and try to introduce you to others. The large churches allow you to be anonymous but then it can be hard to get connected. Hope you find the right fit for your family! When we switched churches, I relied on my husband to make the decision because I would have made the decision based on the wrong criteria like how many home educators are there, what is the worship like, are people similar to us rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us. My husband does that a lot better than I do because he doesn't have those pre-conceived criteria. Peace & Grace, Kim

The trades are on their way! We are so excited for this project and hope a lot more people decide to join us! Warm regards, Kim

Great!! We're really excited to start trading! Have a great day. Email us at homeschool3boys@live.com with pictures of your trade. Warm regards, Kim

We created this web site to trade Lego guys and to, hopefully, learn about our states. My two oldest boys are 8 & 7 and want to trade Lego people and postcards with kids from around the country. We're going to use this to start learning our states. We hope you can visit and, hopefully, find a Lego guy that you're child would like to trade for. Directions are on the blog. Sending warm regards this chilly winter!! Kim in Phoenix, AZ http://legotraders.blogspot.com/

I have just started reading the book, The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. I can already tell it will change all of our lives. I read it to my husband in the car on our road trip from Phx to Santa Fe and I'm so glad he agrees with it and me. I adore Ken Robinson. Find him on YouTube and watch anything he says. He's brilliant, IMHO. Ahem. I had to throw out most of my curriculum this year due to ds8yo's learning glitches. Turns out that now my 4, 7, and 8 yo boys are THRIVING! They are learning so much just because of hands-on exposure. Not things that, even in great books, they hear and then forget. Tons of Lego robotics and nature walks and art museums and pottery class and Timez Attack on the computer. They have LOVED and learned and remember all the living books that we've been reading for our American history program through WinterPromise. We still talk about Sign of the Beaver and By the Great Horn Spoon and Pedro's Journal on a weekly basis. We were studying American Native people and pueblos and my husband had a business trip in Santa Fe NM so here we are! And today we toured two ancient pueblos!! Anyway, all of this yakking to say that learning will occur when it's interesting and means something to the child. My kids beg for our daily hour of listening to our audio Bible. BEG. They LOVE it. They now LOVE our math after I switched from Singapore (because I was sure it was the best) to Teaching Textbooks (which I was sure was the worst). I find some way to make everything either fun or interesting or, guess what? I DON'T DO IT! Because, if the child has good nutrition and a stimulating environment, they.will.learn. And if they love what they are doing. They.will.learn.more.effectively.and.remember. I'm on vacation and it's late for me and I'm feeling punky with my periods. : ) But I stopped killing myself with worry and pouring over WTM for curriculum. WTM is a quicklink on the top of my browser. The For Sale listings. But I'm deleting it tonight. I'd say run tomorrow to your library or look on your library's web site to see if they have The Element. Read it as quickly as you can then read it again just for kicks. I promise it will change your perspective. Well, I can't promise because I don't know you but it sure changed mine. I was very straight-laced, by-the-book, never met a worksheet I didn't like and force upon my children, Charlotte Mason was a wimp kinda home educating scary teacher. Now I'm still scary but am becoming more at peace with myself and what we're doing with our boys. The book is about finding your passion in life and the passion in your children. Once you find that, I call it the calling that God has on our children's lives for careers, God will provide the rest. We've been praying since before our sons were born that God would show us what He wants the boys to do with their lives. If we discover that early, I might never have to worry about Latin or college. I'm just more of a relaxed homeschooler now and it's just so very, very helpful. I hope I haven't scared you but, rather, encouraged you. You don't have to seek anywhere but right in your own home for what you're looking for, if you don't want to. And this is coming from someone who always wants to know if I'm doing it "right." Whew! What a change! Thank you, Lord. Peace & Grace, Kim BTW - WinterPromise has a science-based curriculum called Animals & Their Worlds. I did it when my boys were 6 & 7. Your daughter might like it. http://www.amazon.com/Element-Finding-Passion-Changes-Everything/dp/0143116738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289020180&sr=8-1

After having just met with Dianne, we have our boys on three different fish oil supplements. Because if one is good, three is better, right? : ) ChildLife cold liver oil (strawberry flavor) which all three boys love and two are very picky. Even my four-year old loves it. I just bought, from Costco, a product called Omega Blendz (tropical fruit flavor) which all three boys love but has about 1/2 the recommended amounts of ChildLife. And then, for good measure, they take 4 caps of Nature's Way EFA Blend for Children. Because they can swallow. Well, the 7 & 8 yos take those and the 4 yo, who is already a brainiac, only takes 1 tsp of the cod liver oil. I will tell you that the Omega Blendz (made by Barlean's) has smoothie flavor & consistency and would work well in smoothies. But it's supposedly great by itself. It's just so thick that it's hard to get out of the dropper. HTH!! Kim

I am just finishing SM Stds 2B with my 7 & 8 year old boys. I am just starting 1A with my four year old boy. Yes, four year old. It has been a huge struggle for my 8yo as he has a visual memory issue. It's like groundhog day here every day. Flashcards don't work and he doesn't know his basic add/subt facts. Still counts on fingers, clocks, tallies or anything he can find. I was told by the SM forum to just let him do this until he doesn't need it anymore. So we push on and he gets more and more. I use all the extras like extra practice, challenging word problems, tests, everything. That's why it's July and we're about 70 pgs away from finishing the year. In December, we were way ahead of schedule but I pulled back to work so much on basics that now we're behind. THAT being said, I believe so firmly in SM and the way it teaches my children that I wouldn't switch. HOWEVER, I AM looking for something else unless my husband can teach math because it would be like me teaching someone to change the oil in their car. I just can't teach math. Everything else, yes. Math, no. Especially SM because it's so logic-based. I LOVE the way they stretch my boys and help them to really dig into equations and see them in different ways. I think that's why SM is so successful and why Americans are not good at math. We can't think outside the box because we are never taught to and we don't have to. So I am severely reluctant to give this up - even though it's been excruciating at times. When it is, I realize that it's really my issue and I'm pushing too hard or have skipped over the concrete and pictorial lessons too quickly before trying out mental math. For my 7yo, I can do that and he gets it. My 8yo needs lots and lots of time in the C & P lessons before we ever dare venture out into mental math. 8yo is an auditory learner/7yo is kinesthetic and visual. So we talk out loud a lot, do tons of math on the white board and play a bunch of math games. A lot of games. Timez Attack for multiplication practice on the computer and lots of computer math drills and games. I would rather take a long time getting the foundation laid and laying a GREAT foundation than rushing it or using another easier program just to make it easier. Because it is easier. And I have to ask myself why. So if I can take it slower and get the same result that I'm looking for, I'm going to do it. But that is because I am terrible in math and I don't want my kids to suffer the same fate. In college I had to take logic as my math equivalency because I couldn't pass math 101. If you need any suggestions or more detailed math help, use the SM forums. They are excellent and the administrators give great advice and quickly, too. I hope this helps in any way and I hope you find what you are looking for for your daughter. Enjoy the journey! Peace & Grace, Kim

Cristina - I have an 8yo who struggles terribly in math. Gets concepts but not calculations. I've been forcing him through on schedule it's not not pretty. I skip many things but I didn't think to back him down. SM forums recommended that I ensure that he has a manipulative for every calculation. Makes total sense. But I'd always felt like a failure because it seems that SM wants them at mental math so quickly and I could never get him there. So I'm relieved that they said to go at his pace, slow down and make sure that I teach him calculations. I love SM and don't want to switch. So I'll slow down and make sure that he has understanding of the calculations before we move on. Even if we have to stay there for a long time and do 100 different games and activities to get there. SM said not to get stuck on the mental math but just teach him to get the calculations. God bless you as you teach your children and in all things, Kim

Timez Attack for multiplication facts. It's probably the only one that we use that is just for facts. I don't like how it's all dark and about creatures but my boys love it. I bet girls don't. It's terribly repetitive on the play. Would be nice to mix up the play factor when doing facts. Like 5s do "this" and the 4s do "that." Sorry not much help. Must sleep. But that sounds fun and I hope you get something great. We could all sure use it!! Kim

I really don't mean to hijack this but just have a quick question for Cristina. Cristina - can you tell me why? I am just getting ready to order IP for 2B, 3AB for my 7yo to do over the summer. I'd like to know what to look for. Thank you! Kim

Hi Susan - if you don't get a good answer here, go to Singapore's math forum for the answer. They are fast AND good! http://www.singaporemaths.com/forums/forum.php HTH! Kim

My 7yo just knows them. He's crazy like that. :001_smile: My 7yo is a big picture guy. Has trouble with visual memory. So flashcards don't work. LOVES Times Tales and Timez Attack computer game. The computer game, however, is geared towards boys, I believe. It's all about dragons and creatures and defeating them. But it helps to learn and reinforce the facts. Bought one of those "machines" that you push the button and the answer is on the front of the button. Worked for about two minutes until they learned the pattern of the numbers on the front of the buttons. Very frustrating because they weren't cheap! If your kid is not visual, flashcards won't work well. Even my auditory boy didn't like the songs. But TT works so well for him, it's scary. HTH!! Kim

Yes, it's CRAZY that you and your children are enjoying their education. NOT! I have a friend with five children who had to use ABEKA dvds for a few years while her kids were young. We have the freedom as home educators to choose the best situation for our families based on OUR knowledge and not based on anyone else. I think it's fabulous that you have found something that you like right now. Do what works and ditch what doesn't. Nuff said! :iagree: Kim

Never heard of this but if they had one in AZ, my kids would be going.... We are Lego crazy over here. I hear them upstairs building right now....:) Thanks for the heads-up! Kim

Thanks, Katie! The only issue that I have is that TT was slightly recommended to me at the Singapore forum but you know how advanced SM is! So they said to be careful on where to place my little guy because it will definitely be below Singapore's levels. Is that a possibility of why your son likes it so much? Because it's easy? I'm just worried about the boredom factor? How did you figure out how to place him in TT? Is the TT that you got him at/below/above his level in Singapore (if he's doing Singapore?). Thanks, Kim

Jana - I second this. It's called the Discover for Yourself series. You read the entire chapter of the book that you're in before you start if you like. We will read the chapter and then answer the questions. Sometimes our oral reading and question period will go too long so we'll have to write in the book the next day. We also act out anything that we can. I'm a trained Precept leader and can't say enough for this series. Learning inductive Bible study for children is invaluable. I just studied, with my 7 & 8 yos, about the word "wine" in John chapter 2. They learned about Greek, a concordance, a parallel study Bible and Logos software. They saw how the word "wine" was used in other sentences including not to use it for drunkenness and we talked about how the wine Jesus created could not have been just "really strong grape juice" since the same word was used to describe drunkenness. Can you imagine your children leaving your home with such Bible study skills? I love it!! HTH! Kim

You did just fine. I can't yet find the online portion but I'm looking!! Thank you!! Kim

Cool. I'll check it out!